New Priority Means Fewer Beds in City’s Shelters

In New York City, during working hours, homelessness is there for all to see. An estimated 58,000 people forage for help and survival by day, then retreat to shelters at night. Now comes startling news of federal budget cuts that could mean the loss of 500 shelter beds operated by a dozen or so organizations and a consequent increase in needy people left to wander and sleep on the streets.

Grants from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development have provided crucial financial support for city shelters for years. But HUD officials have shifted priorities to favor permanent housing facilities as a more productive response to homelessness than transitional shelters. A HUD official says permanent housing “has demonstrably better outcomes at a lower cost.”

“This is devastating,” said Alexander Horwitz, chief of staff for the Doe Fund, which will lose more than $3 million and 74 of the 270 beds it maintains at two shelters, many of them for ex-convicts receiving services.

The cuts also affect a dozen other major shelter organizations that are on the front lines in a city that bears an obligation under the law to provide shelter to any and all of its homeless people. The city does not shirk its obligation in a budget that provides over $1 billion annually for homeless services, making the federal cuts all the more indefensible.

The obvious truth is that both temporary and permanent help are needed; they should not be played off one against the other because of budget inadequacies rooted in Congress. Permanent housing may be a solution for destitute families, but individual homeless people need more transitional help for problems ranging from addiction to mental illness to post-prison recovery. These services are the focus of some of the shelter organizations most directly affected by the new cuts.

In addition to the close to 60,000 people who spend nights in the city shelters, 3,000 beggars and derelicts choose to live full time on the streets, a cohort that grows in warm weather. Tragically, they will be joined by the hundreds of homeless people who now face eviction from basic shelter.